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Clifford Lo

Colleen Lee

Dozen fight for life after coach hits barrier
A bus driver was being held for questioning by police last night after Hong Kong's worst traffic accident in five years left 18 people dead and 44 injured - including a dozen who were fighting for their lives.
The bus, carrying worshippers to the monthly gathering of a religious sect, went out of control at a Sai Kung roundabout, flipped on its side and rammed into a  noise barrier. The roof was crushed and seats bent, trapping the dead and injured.
Witnesses and survivors said the bus had been travelling at high speed. One said it sped by 'faster than an aeroplane'. The driver was quoted later as saying the brakes had failed.
Two hundred  rescuers took nearly  three hours to extricate the victims from the mangled bus.
The accident at  the junction of New Hiram's Highway and Nam Pin Wai Road was the worst in Hong Kong  since a double-decker bus plunged off a Tuen Mun flyover in 2003 after a collision with a container truck, killing 21 people.
Fourteen women, the youngest aged 30 and the oldest 83, were pronounced dead at the scene. Of  48 people rescued from the bus, four - all women - later died in hospital.
Last night 37 were still in hospital, 12 of them critically injured. Nine were in serious condition and 16 stable. Six others had been allowed to go home; the driver was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving causing death, and taken to a police station.
Sai Kung district councillor Yau Yuk-lun, who visited the driver in Tseung Kwan O Hospital, said he  had more than 10 years' experience.
He looked 'very upset', Mr Yau said.
He quoted the driver as saying the vehicle's brakes had failed.
The bus was one of three taking members of the Shinji Shumeikai religious group from Fung Wong San Tsuen in Wong Tai Sin to its headquarters in Chuk Yeung Road, Sai Kung.
As it careered out of control, it mowed down a lamp post before toppling on its side against the noise barrier. The angle it was lying at made the rescue difficult. Firefighters had to secure it with ropes to stop it tilting further before they began removing victims through the windows.
A tent was set up at the site to serve as a temporary mortuary.
Most of the passengers were trapped when the force of the crash bent their seats out of shape.
'Let me die in comfort. I don't want to die like this,' one of the survivors said before she was freed.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen visited the mortuary tent and said a prayer.
'Like other Hong Kong residents, my heart is heavy ... It's a very great misfortune,' Mr Tsang said.
Hospital Authority senior executive  manager   Liu Shao-haei  said most of the victims had broken bones and head and internal injuries.
Another Sai Kung district councillor, Christine Fong Kwok-shan, said there had been some serious accidents at the foot of the long downhill section of New Hiram's Highway.
'The road is very straight and wide. Some drivers can easily exceed the speed limit,' she said.
Police said the site of the accident was not a traffic black spot.
Officers are  investigating whether the bus exceeded the  50km/h speed limit or if it had a mechanical fault.
Senior Superintendent Peter Barnes, head of the Kowloon East regional crime unit, which is investigating the crash, said: 'We are looking into all aspects of the case. It's too early to say whether criminal liability is involved.'
Speaking at Tseung Kwan O hospital after visiting some of the survivors,  Mr Tsang said police would conduct a thorough investigation into  the cause of the accident.
He expressed his condolences to the families of the dead, and said the Home Affairs Department and Social Welfare Department were following up the case and offering assistance to the victims and their families.
Ms Fong  hopes the government will install speed bumps on a section of New Hiram's Highway  to slow drivers down.
Transport Department senior engineer Tang Wai-leung denied the layout of the road was defective. He said signs warning of the speed limits had been put up along the road. The downhill limit is 50km/h and the uphill limit  70km/h.



Speeding  blamed as  bus crash  kills 18